As announced "On the Block" on The Score 1260 on Tuesday, Brad Lauer, 44, and Marty Wilford, 34, will join Crunch head man Mark Holick on the Crunch bench next season.

Lauer comes to Syracuse with some coaching pedigree, having spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach with the NHL's Ottawa Senators. He was the first Senator to play for the team and go on to be an assistant coach.

Prior to that, Lauer spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Admirals from 2007-09. He helped the Admirals to a West Division title during the 2008-09 season after the club posted a 49-22-3-6 record, good enough to tie for the AHL lead with 107 points.

In addition, Lauer played in parts of 16 professional seasons from 1986-2002, including 323 career NHL games with the New York Islanders, Chicago Blackhawks, Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins. Additionally, Lauer appeared in 635 combined contests in the AHL and the now-defunct International Hockey League (IHL).

Lauer and I talked about how his vast experience both playing and coaching in the AHL and NHL can help the Crunch this season, being part of a coaching staff that was recently let go in Ottawa and how every coach has to go through that at some point, what he remembers about Syracuse from his days in the AHL, what steps he thinks this Crunch team can take this season, and more.

The full podcast with Brad Lauer is right here.

While Lauer comes to Syracuse with a pretty full resume, Marty Wilford is looking to fill his up.

Wilford's stop in Syracuse will be his first coaching job.

Well, sort of.

As Wilford tells it, when he played with the Norfolk Admirals of the AHL, he served as sort of a "player-coach" as the Admirals didn't have any official assistants at the time.

Wilford, 34, enters the coaching ranks after completing a 14-year playing career, most recently spending the 2010-11 season with Fassa HC in Italy, where he led all club defensemen in scoring with 26 points (3g, 23a) in 39 games. Wilford appeared in 539 combined AHL games with Norfolk, St. John’s (Maple Leafs), Milwaukee, Hartford, Manchester and Iowa (Stars), from 2000-07, tallying 275 points (47g, 228a) and 573 penalty minutes. He spent three years from in the German Elite League (DEL) from 2007-10, leading all league blueliners in points in 2009-10 (41) and assists in 2007-08 (34) and 2009-10 (38).

Wilford was originally selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the sixth round, 149th overall, in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft.

Wilford tells me below how he plans to tackle his first coaching job, what his memories of Syracuse are from his playing days in the NHL, and how the dynamic of the three-man bench will work out in Syracuse.

Here is the full podcast with Wilford.

(Big H/T to John Neenan from the Syracuse Crunch for information used in this post)